Our #1 Recommended Guided Tour

The action of the tides creates a lovely day for a guided kayak tour!

Many different environments meet at the Clam Bayou estuary. Freshwater from springs and rain runoff come together in a weave of creeks. Because of Florida’s gentle slope, these streams braid their way into wide mud flats where birds wade gently and many animals live and feed…

Tiny shellfish make their homes between
the roots of coastal grasses.
Small hermit crabs scurry across the mud flats
looking for tidbits of food.
Crowds of fiddler crabs await the tiny particles of food
brought in on the incoming tide.

As freshwater flows into the sea it mixes. This brackish water is a world of its own…

The branches of mangrove trees shade
mussels and tree oysters who live there.
The tangled stilt-like roots of the red mangrove
are ornamented with shells, fleshy sea squirts,
and delicate bryozoan colonies.
Ducks drift along the shallow channel
between out-reaching mangrove trees.
Golden orb and star-belly spiders
weave webs in the shadows between branches.
The limbs above provide homes
to nesting snowy egrets and pelicans.
Mangrove crabs use the branches as highways.
Oyster beds cluster between the low islands
along the widening shallows.
Great blue herons look for minnows.
The beds also attract tiny sea snails called
oyster drills and sea stars as well.
The sea stars probe the oysters looking for a meal.

  As the marsh and mangrove forest reaches Boca Ciega Bay, the shoreline is rimmed with white sand beaches. Along these channels the waters deepen enough to attract manatees, dolphins and an amazing variety of fish. Clams live just below the sand and all kinds of sea snails hunt for a meal. Many of the shellfish need a clean environment. Every day, as the tide leaves, it carries the fine dust-like soil (silt) down the creeks, out into the bay and beyond… THIS IS YOUR NEXT KAYAK ADVENTURE!

$55/single      $90 double kayak

Spoonbill of Clam Bayou

Brandt’s Pass

1. Monica Kranzel Says:
   February 27th, 2009 at 9:34 am

   Hi Kurt,

   I have reservations for tomorrow with you; either 4 people or just 2 of us.
   My friend is visiting me from NY; the last time he was here I took him to Weedon Island to kayak; but would prefer a guided tour as you took my sister & I out in July when she was here from the UK. & it was fabulos. The only thing is that if the aligator is still in the bayou do not point it out please, also no snakes to look at either. Just lots of birds. see you tomorrow.

   Monica